‘An Unconventional Lady’ Brings the Regency-Era Drama — Read an Excerpt! (Exclusive)

What happens when a woman finds love while trying to expose a scientific fraud? Sarah E. Ladd tells the tale in her latest Regency romance, An Unconventional Lady.

PEOPLE has an exclusive first look at the cover and excerpt from the new book, out Feb. 10, 2026. It centers around Ella Wilde, a charming and headstrong woman, who has an unorthodox upbringing as the daughter of Keatley Hall School for Young Men’s headmaster, per a synopsis.

While she’s always longed to open a school that will offer the same type of education for young women, she must marry before her father dies to have Keatley Hall passed on to her.

Ella’s family, however, has long been proponents of phrenology — the belief that an individual’s personality and dispositions were predetermined by the shape of their head. Shortly before her death, Ella’s mother’s views on phrenology changed, and she vowed to expose it as nothing more than a “fraudulent parlor trick.”

With the impending arrival of renowned phrenologist Thomas Bauer at Keatley Hall, Ella aims to clear her mother’s name with her childhood friend Gabriel Rowe by his side. Although Gabriel has his own scores to settle, the attraction between him and Ella soon becomes too much to ignore, and the question of what they’re willing to risk for happiness comes to the forefront.

Ladd tells PEOPLE that she initially thought the idea of phrenology was “too ludicrous to believe,” but quickly grew curious after considering the idea from an early 19th-century perspective.

“I love diving into the little-known details of history and bringing them to life through the viewpoint of a strong heroine. This book is about challenging the accepted beliefs around us and drawing our own conclusions of the world we live in,” she tells PEOPLE.

Even though she knows there is no truth to phrenology, Ladd says that she “enjoyed giving my heroine the opportunity to poke holes in the theory and let the light of truth shine through — and maybe solve a mystery and fall in love in the process.”

“Throughout history, there have always been women who were brave enough to speak the truth, and I love depicting those ideas through fiction,” she says.

Ladd tells PEOPLE that An Unconventional Lady is a “gentle story with deep themes of trust, self-reliance,” and hopes readers “will think about long after the story ends.”

Read below for an exclusive excerpt from An Unconventional Lady.

Three refined ladies — each the wife of a Society member — stood on the far side of the hedgerow with their backs to her. Their hushed words carried on the breeze.

“You read the pamphlet, did you not? Have you any reason to doubt it?” asked one of the women. “It was written by experts in phrenology — Mrs. Wilde’s very own friends.”

Ella’s family had long been supportive of phrenology — the idea that a person’s personality and dispositions were predetermined by the shape of their head. Her mother had been uniquely passionate about it and devoted many years to the study and research of it.

Ella wished she’d never even heard the word.

“So-called friends, I’d say,” responded the second lady, “for who would write such atrocious things about someone they considered an acquaintance, let alone a friend?”

“I’m inclined to believe it,” the first voice replied. “Mrs. Wilde was volatile by nature. What reason would we have to doubt the men who wrote that pamphlet? What motive would they have to lie?”

Ella inched toward the hedge’s edge, wrinkling her nose at the sickly sweet scent of a nearby phlox bloom and holding her breath to hear.

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. 

“I simply can’t envision Mrs. Wilde intentionally setting a blaze. It’s absurd!”

“Absurd or not, several of the servants insisted they heard her shouting prior to the fire, and we all know her opinions and behavior were increasingly radical and at times bizarre.”

After a brief lull, the first lady spoke again. “What do you make of the pamphlet’s claim that a phrenological assessment was performed on Eleanor when she was an infant? They state that she possesses the propensity to behave like her mother.”

Ella jolted. They were speaking of her! How could she see the folly of such assumptions when all the adults around her considered it truth?

Ella could stand to hear no more.

It was as if some other power had taken control — as if all the grief and anger spiraled together, culminating in one overpowering force. “How dare you!” Ella sprung from the hedgerows onto the brick path, her cry disrupting the swallows on the garden’s branches. “How can you say such cruel things about someone you called a friend? Your lies are far worse than anything my mother ever did. At least she told the truth. You are the bizarre, vile ones! If my mother were alive, she’d never forgive you.”

The PEOPLE Puzzler crossword is here! How quickly can you solve it? Play now!

With her shouted words still echoing from Keatley Hall’s stone exterior walls, Ella whirled and ran. The garden’s colors of sage, ochre and saffron commingled as tears blurred her vision and the heat choked her, making each breath feel as if fire smoldered in her lungs.

Someone called her name, but she did not stop running. She raced through the garden, through the iron gate and over the craggy meadow. She did not slow her pace until she reached the shadowy shelter of the forest’s canopy.

Gasping, Ella dropped to the mossy ground, ripping her stocking on a broken stick and scraping her palm against a chunk of decaying bark. She panted for air.

She’d been rude. Disrespectful.

But she would never, ever, forgive those cruel gossips.

It didn’t matter what they had said. She was not bizarre or radical or any of the other words she’d heard whispered in recent days, and neither was her mother.

Most importantly, their words were now etched in her memory, and even if it took until her very last breath, she would prove them wrong.

Excerpted from An Unconventional Lady. Copyright © 2026 by Sarah E. Ladd. All rights reserved.

An Unconventional Lady will be published on Feb. 10, 2026, and is now available for preorder, wherever books are sold.